Sorry Kermit...But It Can Be Easy To Be Green!

Recycled Bottle Cap Necklaces

In a previous post, I announced my partnership with a group of incredible people for an Earth Day campaign. In working towards the common goal of the campaign, I kept focusing on my profession and how even though I am in the print industry, there are still ways of being kind to Mother Earth.
The whole time I was consumed with making sure I lent my expertise in keeping the campaign green and how my addition to the group was about sustainable design practices. But, as we started getting entrees in, it hit me.
Be it a conscious decision or not, my whole life I have practiced some facet of green living. My grandparents were farmers who lived a great deal off of what they grew themselves. Both had lived through the depression and were very frugal. My grandmother even recycled her dishwater, which I still do to this day myself. And my favorite hobby is reusing/repurposing found objects. I'm the kind of person who considers a secondary use for an object before tossing it - whether it is broken or not.
I realized that there was more to my business than just sustainable printing. Everyday I'm reusing and recycling object around me. Whether it is using a preprinted piece of paper as a food shopping list or taking the backing from a used notepad and using it for shipping material.
I've even turned this habit into a little sidebusiness. People can buy necklaces I've crafted from used bottle caps and I'm working on getting a line of journals done that are made from scraps of paper and old shopping bags.
There are so many ways, big and small that you can implement into your daily routine. So, stop by the Earth Day blog that I helped set up and see what others are doing. And if you have any cool bottle caps, send them my way!

Read more...

1,000 Ways to Love The Earth (and my job!)

Get your FREE album by visiting

http://1000waystolovetheearth.wordpress.com/

Awhile back, I was approached by children's singer DARIA about working with her and another talented artist, Farah Aria on some collateral for an Earth Day album she was producing. Daria is wonderful to work with and I knew anything she brought my way would be amazing.

The concept was simple and yet so incredible at the same time. Daria was going to produce a completely green CD to giveaway. For the first 1,000 people who sent her a way they love the earth, she would send them her songs, FREE, to download.

My role was to primarily assist in the design of the cover art for the album. But, as it just so happened, while all 3 of us were hashing out ideas, the campaign grew to include not only the cover art, but the design and building of a blog, liner notes, fliers and icons and banners for promotional use. Not to mention:
- submissions by followers all over the world
- an online forum for others to visit, read the submissions and be inspired themselves
- giveaways of not only the CD, but of green posters featuring the album art designed by Farah
- interactive liner notes that include video links and how-tos on creating your own recycled musical instruments
- A handful of amazing, established partners, and so much more!

I was constantly amazed and in awe of these 2 awesome women. Their ideas, their knowledge and their undying energy for this campaign was unreal. Every day brought a new idea, a solution to something we had been working on and ever more ways to love and protect the earth.

And at this point, it should also be pointed out that this campaign is also a testament to the power on online communication. Both Daria and I live on the East Coast - although not very close to each other. Farah is on the West Coast. The three of us all run professional businesses, are all creative in our own right and have a deep respect for each other. Time zones, locations. None of that mattered in this project and there was never a problem. To top it off, the majority of the promotional work advertising this campaign is being done online only. So far we have had an overwhelming response from around the world and we can't wait to share what we've been sent with the rest of you!

I couldn't have asked for a better campaign to work on or two other creative women to work with. I'll be posting more articles about this campaign, so stay tuned! In the meantime, read, enjoy and don't forget to let us kn ow how you love the earth!

Read more...